C. EDUCATION OF BLACKS AND INDIANS
Denial of education to slaves and free Negroes
1. Mississippi outlaws meetings of five or more slaves or free Negroes for instruction, 1823
"An Act to alter and amend an act entitled 'An Act to reduce into one the several acts concerning slaves, free negroes and mulattoes,' " Laws of the State of Mississippi, Passed at the Sixth Session of the General Assembly (Jackson, 1823), p. 60.
All meetings or assemblies of slaves, or free negroes, or mulattoes, mixing and associating with such slaves above the number of five, at any place of public resort, or at any meeting-house or houses, in the night, or at any school or schools, for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed and considered an unlawful assembly, and any justice of the peace of the county or corporation wherein such assemblage shall be, either from his own knowledge, or the information of others, of such unlawful assemblage or meeting, may issue his warrant, directed to any sworn officer or officers, authorising him or them to enter the house or houses where such unlawful assemblages or meetings may be, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such slaves, free negroes or mulattoes, and to inflict corporal punishment on the offender or offenders, at the discretion of any such justice of the peace, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes . . .
2. Virginia prohibits instruction of free Negroes find slaves, 1831
"An Act to amend the act concerning slaves, free negroes and mulattoes," 1831 — ch. 39, Acts Passed at a General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia (Richmond, 1831), pp.107-108.
All meetings of free negroes or mulattoes, at any school-house, church, meeting-house or other place for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed and considered as an unlawful assembly; and any justice of the county or corporation, wherein such assemblage shall be, either from his own knowledge, or on the information of others, of such unlawful assemblage or meeting, shall issue his warrant, directed to any sworn officer or officers, authorising him or them, to enter the house or houses where such unlawful assemblage or meeting may be, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such free negroes or mulattoes, and to inflict corporal punishment on the offender or offenders, at the discretion of any justice of the peace, not exceeding twenty lashes.
... If any white person or persons assemble with free negroes or mulattoes, at any school-house, church, meeting-house, or other place for the purpose of instructing such free negroes or mulattoes to read or write, such person or persons shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in a sum not exceeding fifty dollars, and moreover may be imprisoned at the discretion of a jury, not exceeding two months.
... If any white person, for pay or compensation, shall assemble with any slaves for the purpose of teaching, and shall teach any slave to read or write, such person, or any white person or persons contracting with such teacher so to act, who shall offend as aforesaid, shall, for each offence, be fined at the discretion of a jury, in a sum not less than ten, nor exceeding one hundred dollars, to be recovered on an information or indictment.
3. The Alabama legislature penalizes those who teach free Negroes or slaves to read, then makes an exception, 1832-1833
a. "An Act to Prevent the Introduction of Slaves into Alabama, and for other Purposes," Acts Passed at the Thirteenth Annual Session of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, 1832), p. 16.
Any person or persons who shall endeavor or attempt to teach any free person of color, or slave, to spell, read, or write, shall, upon conviction thereof by indictment, be fined in a sum not less than two hundred and fifty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars.
b. "An Act to authorize the instruction of certain free persons of color . . . ," Acts Passed at the Annual Session of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, 1834),p.68.
Whereas, there arc now residing in the city and county of Mobile and Baldwin, many free colored Creoles of said city and counties, whose ancestors were residing there in the time of the change of the flag, and to whom, by the treaty entered into between the French republic and the United States of America, in 1803, were secured the enjoyments of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States: and whereas the said colored Creoles have heretofore conducted themselves with uniform propriety and good order, and are anxious to have their offspring educated: therefore,
Be it enacted . . . That the mayor and aldermen of the city of Mobile shall have power to authorize and license such person or persons, as they may deem suitable to teach and instruct, for limited periods, the free colored Creole children, residents within the limits of the city and counties of Mobile and Baldwin, who are descendants of those persons who were residents of the said city or counties, at the time the treaty made between the French republic and the United States of America, in April, 1803, was ratified: Provided always, that none of the colored children shall be so taught and instructed, until they shall first have the permission of the said mayor and aldermen of the city of Mobile, and they shall have recorded the names of such children in a book to be kept by them for that purpose.
4. South Carolina act on teaching slaves, 1834
"An Act to amend the Laws in relation to Slaves and Free Persons of Color," D. J. McCord, ed., Statutes at Large of South Carolina, VII (Columbia, 1840), 468.
If any person shall hereafter teach any slave to read or write, or shall aid or assist in teaching any slave to read or write, or cause or procure any slave to be taught to read or write, such person, if a free white person, upon conviction thereof, shall, for each and every offence against this Act, be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars, and imprisoned not more than six months; or if a free person of color, shall be whipped, not exceeding fifty lashes, and fined not exceeding fifty dollars, at the discretion of the court of magistrates and freeholders before which such free person of color is tried; and if a slave, to be whipped at the discretion of the court, not exceeding fifty lashes; the informer to be entitled to one half of the fine, and to be a competent witness. And if any free person of color or slave shall keep any school, or other place of instruction, for teaching any slave or free person of color to read or write, such free person of color or slave shall be liable to the same fine, imprisonment and corporal punishment, as are by this Act imposed and inflicted on free persons of color and slaves for teaching slaves to read or write.
5. A Petition to the North Carolina legislature from the Society of Friends asking for repeal of the recently enacted laws restricting the instruction of slaves, 1834
Charles L. Coon, The Beginnings of Public Education in North Carolina, 1790-1840: A Documentary History (Raleigh, 1908) 11,675-677.
The legislature failed to respond to this appeal.
Memorial and Petition of the Religious Society of Friends, Convened at New Garden Guilford County, North Carolina in the Eleventh Month, 1834. To the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina, Respectfully sheweth—That your Memorialists entertaining a hope that you will be disposed seriously to consider any subject connected with the great principles of Civil and Religious Liberty, affecting every class of citizens, respectfully present this Memorial.
In this enlightened age and country, and before the Assembly to which your Memorialists now appeal, we deem it unnecessary to urge the incontrovertible arguments that might be advanced from reason and Religion, to prove that it is the indispensable duty of the Legislature of a Christian people to enact laws and establish regulations for the literary Instruction of every class, within its limits; and that such provisions should be consistent with sound policy, tend to strengthen the hands of Government and promote the peace and harmony of the community at large.
Your Petitioners consider it a high privilege, that they are subjects of a Government, mild in its form and professedly Republican; that the people have annually the choice of their Legislatures — a circumstance that lessens the difficulty and delicacy of petitioning for the repeal of laws enacted by preceding Legislatures and encourages their hope of success.
Your Memorialists are therefore emboldened under a weighty concern of Religious duty, to petition the present General Assembly of North Carolina to repeal all those laws, enacted by preceding Legislatures of this State, against the literary instruction of Slaves, making it a finable offence for any to be found to be teaching them to read. And they respectfully request your consideration of the repeal of the law recently enacted, prohibiting all coloured persons in this State, bond or free, upon the penalty of corporeal punishment, from public preaching, exhorting, &c. in their respective Religious Congregations or Societies. We consider these laws unrighteous, offensive to God and contrary to the spirit and principles of the Christian Religion; and your Memorialists believe, if not repealed, will increase the difficulties and danger they were intended to prevent.
Your Petitioners, so far from using any measures, either publicly or privately, that would tend to increase their discontent with their situation, feel it their indispensable duty, upon all suitable occasions, to encourage slaves to obedience and faithfulness to their masters, as the most probable means of mitigating their sufferings, and ameliorating their present condition. We would exhort them in the language of the Apostle —
“Servants be obedient to your Masters”—and we do exhort Masters to be kind to their Slaves, as, we have no doubt, such Christian usage would induce a reciprocity of kindlier feelings between them, and ultimately tend to increase the happiness of both, and also promote the harmony and prosperity of the Civil and Religious community. And may we not believe that the more we live in the spirit and in the practice of the precepts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the more kind and gentle will be our treatment of every grade of our fellow creatures — for was not the harmonizing and evangelizing of the whole human family, one of the grand purposes for which this Religion was introduced into the world?
And lastly, your Petitioners would respectfully submit to your consideration, not only the repeal of those laws before mentioned, but the enacting of other laws and regulations for the general instruction of Slaves, in the doctrines and precepts of the Christian Religion, and in so much of literary education at least, as will enable them to read the Holy Scriptures, which would undoubtedly tend to the improvement of their general character, and condition, and greatly lessen if not wholly remove, the apprehensions of danger from them.
And may you be influenced by that wisdom which is from above, which is profitable to direct, and which the Apostle says, "is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits." That you may be enabled to enact righteous laws, the operation and execution of which may be a terror to evil-doers, an encouragement to those that do well, and to the praise of God; that violence may no more be heard in our land, but that Righteousness, which exalteth a nation, may so prevail, that the threatening judgments of Heaven on account of sin (which is a reproach to any people) may be averted . . .
6. The imprisonment of the minds of slaves
Tocqueville, Democracy in America, I, 379-380.
The legislation of the Southern states with regard to slaves presents at the present day such unparalleled atrocities as suffice to show that the laws of humanity have been totally perverted, and to betray the desperate position of the community in which that legislation has been promulgated. The Americans of this portion of the Union have not, indeed, augmented the hardships of slavery; on the contrary, they have bettered the physical condition of the slaves. The only means by which the ancients maintained slavery were fetters and death; the Americans of the South of the Union have discovered more intellectual securities for the duration of their power. They have employed their despotism and their violence against the human mind. In antiquity precautions were taken to prevent the slave from breaking his chains; at the present day measures are adopted to deprive him even of the desire for freedom. The ancients kept the bodies of their slaves in bondage, but placed no restraint upon the mind and no check upon education; and they acted consistently with their established principle, since a natural termination of slavery then existed, and one day or other the slave might be set free and become the equal of his master. But the Americans of the South, who do not admit that the Negroes can ever be commingled with themselves, have forbidden them, under severe penalties, to be taught to read or write; and as they will not raise them to their own level, they sink them as nearly as possible to that of the brutes.
7. Chancellor William Harper of South Carolina defends the southern decision to keep slaves in ignorance
The Pro-Slavery Argument; as Maintained by the Most Distinguished Writers of the Southern States, Containing the Several Essays, on the Subject, of Chancellor Harper, Governor Hammond, Dr. Simms, and Professor Dew (Charleston, 1852), pp. 36-38.
Harper (1790-1847), South Carolina's leading lawyer and judge, had been active in the nullification movement of 1832. His essay on slavery was first published in 1837.
Odium has been cast upon our legislation, on account of its forbidding the elements of education to be communicated to slaves. But, in truth, what injury is done to them by this? He who works during the day with his hands, does not read in intervals of leisure for his amusement, or the improvement of his mind — or the exceptions are so very rare, as scarcely to need the being provided for. Of the many slaves whom I have known capable of reading, I have never known one to read any thing but the Bible, and this task they impose on themselves as matter of duty. Of all methods of religious instruction, however, this, of reading for themselves, would be the most inefficient—their comprehension is defective, and the employment is to them an unusual and laborious one. There are but very few who do not enjoy other means more effectual for religious instruction. There is no place of worship opened for the white population, from which they are excluded. I believe it a mistake, to say that the instructions there given are not adapted to their comprehension, or calculated to improve them. If they are given as they ought to be — practically, and without pretension, and are such as are generally intelligible to the free part of the audience, comprehending all grades of intellectual capacity, — they will not be unintelligible to slaves. I doubt whether this be not better than instruction, addressed specially to themselves — which they might look upon as a device of the master's, to make them more obedient and profitable to himself. Their minds, generally, show a strong religious tendency, and they arc fond of assuming the office of religious instructors to each other; and perhaps their religious notions arc not much more extravagant than those of a large portion of the free population of our country. I am not sure that there is a much smaller proportion of them, than of the free population, who make some sort of religious profession. It is certainly the master's interest that they should have proper religious sentiments, and if he fails in his duty towards them, we may be sure that the consequences will be visited not upon them, but upon him.
If there were any chance of their elevating their rank and condition in society, it might be matter of hardship, that they should be debarred those rudiments of knowledge which open the way to further attainments. But this they know cannot be, and that further attainments would be useless to them. Of the evil of this, I shall speak hereafter. A knowledge of reading, writing, and the elements of arithmetic, is convenient and important to the free laborer, who is the transactor of his own affairs, and the guardian of his own interests — but of what use would they be to the slave? These alone do not elevate the mind or character, if such elevation were desirable.
How slaves learned to read and write
1. Frederick Douglass in Baltimore, ca. 1825-1830
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself, pp. 58. 64-65, 70-71.
Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read. To use his own words, further, he said. "If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing hut to obey his master — to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now," said he, "if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy." These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain.
From this time I was most narrowly watched. If I was in a separate room any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at once called to give an account of myself. All this, however, was too late. The first step had been taken. Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell.
The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers. With their kindly aid, obtained at different times and in different places, I finally succeeded in learning to read. When I was sent of errands, I always took my book with me, and by going one part of my errand quickly, I found time to get a lesson before my return. I used also to carry bread with me, enough of which was always in the house, and to which I was always welcome; for I was much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood. This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge. I am strongly tempted to give the names of two or three of those little boys, as a testimonial of the gratitude and affection I bear them; but prudence forbids; — not that it would injure me, but it might embarrass them; for it is almost an unpardonable offence to teach slaves to read in this Christian country.
The idea as to how I might learn to write was suggested to me by being in Durgin and Bailey's ship-yard, and frequently seeing the ship carpenters, after hewing, and getting a piece of timber ready for use, write on the timber the name of that part of the ship for which it was intended. When a piece of timber was intended for the larboard side, it would be marked thus — "L." When a piece was for the starboard side, it would be marked thus—"S." A piece for the larboard side forward, would be marked thus — "L.F." When a piece was for starboard side forward, it would be marked thus—"S.F." For larboard aft, it would be marked thus — "L.A." For starboard aft, it would be marked thus — "S.A." I soon learned the names of these letters, and for what they were intended when placed upon a piece of timber in the ship-yard. I immediately commenced copying them, and in a short time was able to make the four letters named. After that, when I met with any boy who I knew could write, I would tell him I could write as well as he. The next word would be, "I don't believe you. Let me see you try it." I would then make the letters which I had been so fortunate as to learn, and ask him to beat that. In this way I got a good many lessons in writing, which it is quite possible I should never have gotten in any other way. During this time, my copy-book was the board fence, brick wall, and pavement; my pen and ink was a lump of chalk. With these, I learned mainly how to write. I then commenced and continued copying the Italics in Webster's Spelling Book, until I could make them all without looking on the book. By this time, my little Master Thomas had gone to school, and learned how to write, and had written over a number of copy-books. These had been brought home, and shown to some of our near neighbors, and then laid aside. My mistress used to go to class meeting at the Wilk Street meeting-house every Monday afternoon, and leave me to take care of the house. When left thus, I used to spend the time in writing in the spaces left in Master Thomas's copy-book, copying what he had written. I continued to do this until I could write a hand very similar to that of Master Thomas. Thus, after a long, tedious effort for years, I finally succeeded in learning how to write.
2. Fanny Kemble gives a reading lesson on a Georgia plantation, 1839 Kemble, Journal, p. 300.
I must give you an account of Aleck's first reading lesson, which took place at the same time that I gave S[ally] hers this morning. It was the first time he had had leisure to come, and it went off most successfully. He seems to me by no means stupid, I am very sorry he did not ask me to do this before; however, if he can master his alphabet before I go, he may, if chance favor him with the occasional sight of a book, help himself on by degrees. Perhaps he will have the good inspiration to apply to cooper London for assistance; I am much mistaken if that worthy does not contrive that Heaven shall help Aleck, as it formerly did him, in the matter of reading.
3. Slaves on a Mississippi plantation who had learned to read
Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey in the Back Country (New York, 1860), pp. 142-144.
The next morning when I turned out I found Yazoo looking with the eye of a connoisseur at the seven prime field-hands, who at half past seven were just starting off with hoes and axes for their day's work. As I approached him, he exclaimed with enthusiasm:
"Are n't them a right keen lookin' lot of niggers?"
And our host soon after coming out, he immediately walked up to him, saying:
"Why, friend, them yer niggers o' yourn would be good for seventy bales of cotton, if you'd move down into our country."
Their owner was perfectly aware of their value, and said every thing good of them.
"There's something ruther singlar, too, about my niggers; I do n't know as I ever see any thing like it anywhere else."
"How so, sir?"
"Well, I reckon it 's my way o'treatin' 'em, much as any thing. I never hev no difficulty with 'em. Hen't licked a nigger in five year, 'cept maybe sprouting some of the young ones sometimes. Fact, my niggers never want no lookin' arter; they jus tek ker o' themselves. Fact, they do tek a greater interest in the crops than I do myself. There's another thing—I 'spose 't will surprise you—there ent one of my niggers but what can read; read good, too — better'n I can, at any rate."
"How did they learn?"
"Taught themselves. I b'lieve ther was one on 'em that I bought, that could read, and he taught all the rest. But niggers is mighty apt at larnin', a heap more'n white folks is."
I said that this was contrary to the generally received opinion.
"Well, now, let me tell you," he continued; "I had a boy to work, when I was buildin', and my boys jus teachin' him night times and such, he warn't here more'n three months, and he lamed to read as well as any man I ever heerd, and I know he did n't know his letters when he come here. It did n't seem to me any white man could have done that; does it to you, now?"
"How old was he?"
"Warn't more'n seventeen, I reckon."
"How do they get books — do you get them for them?"
"Oh, no; get 'em for themselves."
"How?"
"Buy 'em”
"How do they get the money?"
"Earn it."
"How?"
"By their own work. I tell you my niggers have got more money 'n I hev."
"What kind of books do they get?"
"Religious kind a books ginerally — these stories; and some of them will buy novels, I believe. They won't let on to that, but I expect they do it."
They bought them of peddlers. I inquired about the law to prevent negroes reading, and asked if it allowed books to be sold to negroes. He had never heard of any such law — did n't believe there was any. The Yazoo man said there was such a law in his country. Negroes never had any thing to read there.
Education of free Negro children
1. John Chavis, a free Negro, teaches white and black children in North Carolina
Chavis (ca. 1763-1838), according to tradition, studied privately with President John Witherspoon of Princeton and then became a Presbyterian missionary and teacher in Virginia and North Carolina. His school for whites, attended by several who later became prominent North Carolinians, was famous. As the documents below indicate, he also taught free Negroes.
a. Chavis advertises his school, 1808
The Raleigh Register, Aug. 26, 1808, in Edgar W. Knight, “Notes on John Chavis,” North Carolina Historical Review, VII (1930),339,343.
John Chavis takes this method of informing his employers, and the citizens of Raleigh in general, that the present quarter of his school will end the 15th of September, and the next will commence on the 19th. He will, at the same time, open an evening school for the purpose of instructing children of colour, as he intends, for the accommodation of some of his employers, to exclude all children of colour from his day school.
The evening school will commence at an hour by sun. When the white children leave the house, those of colour will take their places, and continue until ten o'clock.
The terms of teaching white children will be as usual, two and a half dollars per quarter; those of color, one dollar and three quarters. In both cases, the whole of the money is to be paid in advance to Mr. Benjamin S. King. Those who produce certificates from him of their having paid the money, will be admitted. Those who think proper to put their children under his care, may rely upon the strictest attention being paid, not only to their education but to their morals, which he deems an important part of education.
He hopes to have a better school house by the commencement of the next quarter.
b. Chavis draws the praise of a newspaper editor
John Gale [editor], The Raleigh Register, April 22, 1830, in Knight, "Notes on John Chavis," p. 343.
On Friday last, we attended an examination of the free children of color, attached to the school conducted by John Chavis, also colored, but a regularly educated Presbyterian minister, and we have seldom received more gratification from any exhibition of a similar character. To witness a well regulated school, composed of this class of persons — to see them setting an example both in behavior and scholarship, gag which their white superiors might take pride in imitating, was a cheering spectacle to a philanthropist. The exercises throughout, evinced a degree of attention and assiduous care on the part of the instructor, highly creditable, and of attainment on the part of his scholars almost incredible. We were also much pleased with the sensible address which closed the examination. The object of the respectable teacher, was to impress on the scholars, the fact, that they occupied an inferior and subordinate station in society, and were possessed but of limited privileges; but that even they might become useful in their particular sphere by making a proper improvement of the advantages afforded them.
2. Connecticut forbids the attendance of Negro children from other states in private, unincorporated schools without the permission of the selectmen, 1833
The Public Statute Laws of the Stale of Connecticut (Hartford, 1835). pp. 321-322.
Connecticut, by this law, struck at the school of Prudence Crandall (1803-1889) in the town of Canterbury. Miss Crandall, admitting Negroes to her school for girls, aroused the ire and provoked abuse from her fellow townspeople. Arrested and imprisoned under this law in 1834, she discontinued her school and left the state.
Whereas, attempts have been made to establish literary institutions in this state for the instruction of colored persons belonging to other states and countries, which would tend to the great increase of the colored population of the state, and thereby to the injury of the people:
Therefore,
Be it enacted . . . That no person shall set up or establish in this state any school, academy, or literary institution, for the instruction or education of colored persons who arc not inhabitants of this state, nor instruct or teach in any school, academy, or other literary institution whatsoever in this state, or harbor or board, for the purpose of attending or being taught or instructed in any such school, academy, or literary institution, any colored person who is not an inhabitant of any town in this state, without the consent, in writing, first obtained of a majority of the civil authority, and also of the select-men of the town in which such school, academy, or literary institution is situated; and each and every person who shall knowingly do any act forbidden as aforesaid, or shall be aiding or assisting therein, shall, for the first offence, forfeit and pay to the treasurer of this state, a fine of one hundred dollars, and for the second offence shall forfeit and pay a fine of two hundred dollars, and so double for every offence of which he or she shall be convicted . .
3. Ohio laws on public schools for Negro children, 1825-1859
Although the Ohio legislature passed a common school law in 1825, Negro children were excluded from public schools. In 1829 the exclusion was made explicit; at the same time, tax funds paid by Negroes were set aside for use by their children.
a. Negro taxes for Negro schools
“An Act to provide for the support and better regulation of Common Schools," Acts of a General Nature Passed at the First Session of the Twenty-Seventh Assembly of the State of Ohio (Columbus, 1829),pp.72-73.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That a fund shall hereafter be raised in the several counties in this state, in the manner pointed out by this act, for the use of common Schools, for the instruction of youth of every class and grade without distinction, in reading, writing, arithmetic and other necessary branches of a common education: Provided, That nothing in this act contained, shall be so construed as to permit black or mulatto persons to attend the schools hereby established, or compel them to pay any tax for the support of such schools; but all taxes assessed on their property, for school purposes, in the several counties in this state, shall be appropriated as the Trustees of the several townships may direct, for the education of said black and mulatto persons therein, and for no other purpose, whatever.
b. School districts for Negroes authorized, 1849
"An Act to authorize the establishment of separate schools for the education of colored children, and for other purposes," Acts of a General Nature Passed by the Forty-Seventh General Assembly of the State of Ohio (Columbus, 1849), pp. 17-18.
The trustees of each incorporated township in this State, and the trustees, visitors, and directors of schools, or other officers having authority in the premises, of each city and incorporated town or village, shall be and they are hereby authorized and required respectively ... to create one or more school districts for colored persons, in every such township, city, town or village . . .
Whenever any district shall be established as aforesaid, the trustees or other authorities establishing the same, shall give notice, by public advertisement, to the adult male colored tax payers residing in such district, to meet at a time and place specified in the notice, and choose their school directors . . .
The trustees or other authorities establishing separate districts, as aforesaid, shall cause an accurate list to be made as speedily as possible, of all colored tax payers, and of all colored youth over four and under twenty-one years of age, resident therein, and shall certify it to the county Auditor, who shall preserve the same in his office; and no property of any colored tax payer within said districts shall be charged with any special tax for district purposes, for the benefit of the schools in any regular district, composed wholly or in part of the same territory; and no property of any white person in any regular district, shall be charged with any such tax for the benefit of the schools in any separate district composed wholly, or in part, of the same territory. [1a]
Every separate district, established as aforesaid, shall be held to include for school purposes, only the colored persons resident within its territorial limits, and from and after the establishment of the same, the colored youth resident therein, shall attend the schools organized under the directors of such district.
c. A court test of the Ohio school laws, 1859
Enos Van Camp v. The Board of Education of the Incorporated Village of Logan, n.s. 9, Ohio Reports, 408, 409-412, 414.
A Negro parent, resident in a district which had provided no school for Negro children, brought suit to force the local board to admit his children to the schools, arguing that the children were in part of white ancestry. In a 3-2 decision, the justices of the Ohio Supreme Court maintained that the children were properly excluded by the laws of the state. The majority opinion was written by Justice Peck.
The plaintiff in error insists that his children, though in part of African descent, being more than one-half of white blood, are, under the law and the uniform decisions of this court, to be regarded as white, and were therefore wrongfully excluded by the defendants in error from the common schools of the incorporated village of Logan.
This act of 1853 . . . looks to and makes provision for the education of all the children within the state;—children of all races and shades of color. But in so doing, divides them into two classes, "white" and "colored," and imposes the duty of providing schools for both classes, though under different teachers, upon the same board of education. The law then is one of classification and not of exclusion. All the youth, within the prescribed ages, must fall within the one class or the other. All are to be instructed and to participate equally in the public fund, and the share of one class can never be diverted to the instruction of the other. It is true, that where the number of colored youth is too small to justify the organization or the continuance of a school for colored youth, such school must be temporarily delayed or suspended; but this is no more than might occur with the other class under similar circumstances. In determining what is to be understood by the terms "white" and "colored," as used in this act, we may look to the state of things existing at the time, the evils complained of, and the remedies sought to be applied. For nearly two generations, blacks and mulattoes had been a proscribed and degraded race in Ohio. They were debarred from the elective franchise and prohibited from immigration and settlement within our borders, except under severe restrictions. They were also excluded from our common schools and all means of public instruction — incapacitated from serving upon juries, and denied the privilege of testifying in cases where a white person was a party. It would be strange, indeed, if such a state of things had not increased, in the present generation, the natural repugnance of the white race to communion and fellowship with them. Whether consistent with true philanthropy or not, it is nevertheless true, that in many portions, if not throughout the state, there was and still is an almost invincible repugnance to such communion and fellowship. It is also to be borne in mind, that a class had grown up among us, which, though partly black, had still a preponderance of white blood in their veins, and that the courts, influenced in some degree by the severe and somewhat penal character of the restrictions as to blacks and mulattoes, had held that such persons were not only entitled to vote at elections, and testify in our courts of justice, but were also admissible into the schools for white children. It is notorious that these decisions, especially the last, did not receive the hearty approval of the state at large. The prejudice of ages could not be dissipated by one or more judicial decisions, and the frequent suits brought to enforce such admission, evidence such feeling on the part of young and old.
Under this state of things the act of 1853 was enacted. Three objects seem to have been especially in view. To divide all the youth of the state, for educational purposes, into two classes, to provide more effectually for the education of both classes, and to require both classes to be separately instructed. To which of these classes do the children of the plaintiff in error belong — "white" or "colored?" They are not in the ordinary, if they are in a legal sense, white. The demurrer admits that they are, in fact, if not in law, colored children . . . A person who has any perceptible admixture of African blood, is generally called a colored person. In affixing the epithet "colored," we do not ordinarily stop to estimate the precise shade, whether light or dark, though where precision is desired, they are sometimes called "light colored," or "dark colored," as the case may be. If we look at the evils the law was intended to remedy, we shall arrive at the same result. One of the evils undoubtedly was the repugnance felt by many of the white youths and their parents to mingling, socially and on equal terms, with those who had any perceptible admixture of African blood. This feeling or prejudice, if it be one, had been fostered by long years of hostile legislation and social exclusion. The general assembly, legislating for the people as they were, rather than as, perhaps, they ought to have been, while providing for the education and consequent ultimate elevation of a long degraded class, yielded for the time to a deep-seated prejudice, which could not be eradicated suddenly, if at all. Such an arrangement, in the present state of public feeling, is far better for both parties—for the colored youth as well as those entirely white. If those a shade more white than black were to be forced upon the white youth against their consent, the whole policy of the law would be defeated. The prejudice and antagonism of the whites would be aroused; bickerings and contentions become the order of the day, and the moral and mental improvement of both classes retarded. It would seem then, from this examination of the law of 1853, and the circumstances under which it was passed, that the words "white" and "colored," as used in that act, were both used in their ordinary and common acceptation, and that any other construction would do violence to the legislative intent, and perpetuate the very evils that act was intended to remedy. Such was also the construction, which the act upon its passage received in many portions, if not throughout the state. The colored population, whether more or less than mulatto, affiliated with the blacks. Schools were organized, and a wholesome rivalry inaugurated between the two classes.
That the legislature have the power thus to classify the scholars, even when all are undeniably white, no one will question. It might, perhaps, have been better if some further and more definite provision had been made for the education of colored youth, in districts in which the number is so very limited, as it appears to be in the village of Logan. That, however, is a matter for the consideration of the legislature and not for the judiciary.
Division of school fund in New York
1. New York state grants permission to districts to establish separate schools for Negro children and provides for a division of school funds, 1841
"An Act to amend ... the Revised Statutes, relating to Common Schools," 1841 — ch. 260, Laws of the State of New York, Passed at the Sixty-fourth Session of the Legislature (Albany, 1841), pp. 238-239.
A school for colored children may be established in any city or town of this state, with the approbation of the commissioners of common schools of such city or town, which shall be under the charge of the trustees of the district in which such school shall be kept; and in places where no school districts exist, or where from any cause it may be expedient, such school may be placed in charge of trustees to be appointed by the commissioners of common schools of the town or city, and if there be none, to be appointed by the superintendent. Returns shall be made by the trustees of such schools to the commissioners of common schools, at the same time and in the same manner as now provided by law in relation to districts; and they shall particularly specify the number of colored children over five and under sixteen years of age, attending such school from different districts, naming such districts respectively, and the number from each. The commissioners shall apportion and pay over to the trustees of such schools, a portion of the money received by them annually, in the same manner as now provided by law in respect to school districts, allowing to such schools the proper proportion for each child over five and under sixteen years, who shall have been instructed in such school at least four months by a teacher duly licensed, and shall deduct such proportion from the amount that would have been apportioned to the district to which such child belongs; and in their reports to the superintendent the commissioners shall specially designate the schools for colored children in their town or city.
2. A criticism of inequitable distribution of school funds in New York City, 1859
Editorial in the New York Tribune, March 8, 1859.
We systematically deprive the black man of the opportunity of equal culture with the white; we deliberately withhold from him the humanizing and softening influences of education; we practically deny him the right which we theoretically maintain belongs to all men, and then we reproach him that he is not thrifty, not enlightened, not virtuous, but idle, indigent, and imbecile. Doing our best to make him a bad citizen, we complain of him, and reproach him for not being a good one. If the complaint and reproach are not justified by the fact, it is from no merit of ours, but because the black man is so used to oppression that the virtue of moral resistance is strengthened by use, and he does not altogether succumb to the hard fate with which he is visited.
There are in this city about nine thousand colored adults, one thousand of whom are taxed on real estate to the value of nearly a million and a half of dollars, and to this amount may be added nearly two millions of personal estate and money in bank. Probably not less than three thousand more of these people, who are not owners of real estate, are heavily taxed as householders and rent payers, so that the proportion of the whole number who pay taxes for the support of our public schools is quite as large, if not larger, in proportion to the whole number, than that of the white population. Since the organization of the Board of Education the expenditure for school-houses has amounted to $1,600,000. The expenditure for colored schools, during the same period, has amounted to $1,000, the Old Public School Society having assigned to the Board two of the school-houses now used for colored children. The actual expenditure then has been as 1,600 to 1 in favor of the whites, while the proportion of colored children to white attending the schools is as 1 to 40. Nor does the injustice end here. The estimated number of colored children (from the census of 1850) is 3,000, and the average attendance on public schools and corporate schools, supported by school funds, is 1,153, giving an average of attendance to the whole number of 1 to 2.60. The estimated number of white children is 150,000, and the average attendance upon the public and corporate schools is 46,684, or to the whole number as 1 to 3.40. From this it appears that in proportion to the whole number there are nearly 25 per cent more of colored children than of white, who avail themselves of the advantages of education provided by the State. But a large proportion of the white children attend private and Catholic parochial schools; and with this addition, even, it appears that the proportionate attendance of the two classes in schools of all kinds, is about equal. With an equal desire then for education, and with, at least, equal, if not greater proportionate taxation, the expenditure of the Board, as we have shown above, is as 1 to 1,600. This remarkable difference is easily accounted for. The school-houses for the whites are in situations where the price of lots is high, and on the buildings themselves no expenditure is spared to make them commodious and elegant, such as the halls of learning should be, where the State, with a paternal care, provides for the education of the rising generation. The schools for the blacks, on the contrary, are nearly all, if not all, old buildings, generally in filthy and degraded neighborhoods, dark, damp, small and cheerless, safe neither for the morals nor the health of those who arc compelled to go to them, if they go anywhere, and calculated rather to repel than to attract them. For such a state of things there is of course no excuse other than the very poor one of an unreasonable prejudice, and an enlightened and prosperous people should be ashamed of being so governed by it as to make the least possible return in educational privileges to those who are most heavily taxed for them. It is breaking the promise to the car as well as to the hope to assert the legal supposition of equality while the logical consistency only is maintained of granting a poorer quality of instruction to those who are held, by their very isolation, to be of a poorer quality of humanity. We are glad to see that the Special Commission in relation to the common schools of this city call particular attention to this state of things in their annual report to the Governor. Either the colored children should be as well educated as the white, or, if any distinction is made, it should extend to the taxes as well as the educational advantage. But no well-governed State can afford to do otherwise than to secure to those who are to become hereafter its men and women, every possible inducement and facility to intelligence and virtue.
Separate schools for Negroes in Boston
1. An account of the separate public grammar school for Negro children in Boston, 1845
Reports of the Annual Visiting Committees of the Public Schools of the City of Boston, 1845 (Boston, 1845), pp. 22-23.
The Committee on Grammar Schools consisted of Theophilus Parsons, Samuel Gridley Howe, and Rollin H. Neale. Its report, severely critical of the methods employed by teachers, stimulated a controversy which before running its course touched upon all aspects of the schools. Defenders of the schools characterized the visiting committee's report as "visionary and . . . pert." The Smith School, described below, was the only public grammar school for Negroes in Boston. The committee judged it the poorest of the eighteen schools visited in each of the four required grammar school studies — grammar, definitions, history, and geography. Reports of the Annual Visiting Committees, p. 149.
In regard to the Smith school, we have come to the conclusion that it is not only in an unsatisfactory, but in a deplorable condition.The attainments of the scholars are of the lowest grade; a few can read aloud from the first class reader, but cannot understand any other than the simplest passages. Their chattering about grammar shows only the power of their memories to retain the names of things which they do not understand; and their knowledge of geography is nothing but the faculty of repeating imperfectly names of states, towns, rivers, &c. There are certain parts of physical and political geography which we supposed might be made most interesting to colored children, those relating to the West India Islands, the condition of the colored race in Cuba, Jamaica, Hayti, &c.; the colonies in Africa, the condition of the natives, &c.; but the scholars of the Smith school seemed to know nothing about them. They supposed Cuba to be smaller than Massachusetts, knew little or nothing of the other islands, and though one or two had heard of the emancipation act, the class knew nothing about it. They had only the most crude and vague notions of history; and, as for mathematical geography, astronomy, or natural philosophy, the master declined any examination.
But the intellectual deficiency which prevails in this school is not its worst feature; there is a want of discipline; an indifference to verbal requests for order, which indicates the frequency of appeal to more stirring motives; a want of respectful attention, and many indefinable but clear indications of a low moral tone.
Your Committee are aware, that there are many circumstances to be considered before blame should be laid on any individual, for the present low state of the school; they are aware of the difficulties in obtaining a good average attendance, and they will not say that another individual could at once inspire the colored population with more interest in the school, could secure a more punctual attendance, or could awaken the faculties and interest the attention of the scholars. But they do believe that there is good sense enough among the parents, and intellect enough among the children, if fairly enlisted in the subject, and directed by a zealous and discreet friend, to create a school which shall reach at least to the rank now attained by one half of the city schools.
It is to be regretted that the present incumbent has not more faith in the desire of the colored population for the education of their children, and in the capacities of the children themselves; for we fear that, without much faith, and even some enthusiasm, no great harvest can follow the teacher's labors. We think this school calls loudly for improvement.
[William Brigham, J. I. T. Coolidge and Hiram A. Graves], "Report of the Committee on Writing Schools," Reports of the Annual Visting Committees, pp. 158-159.
At the time of the examination, 163 belonged to [Smith School]. The average attendance since the first of April las has been 109. This school is under the instruction of a master and two female assistants. It is divided into four classes. Twenty-seven are in the first class. Four half days each week are devoted to writing and arithmetic. Of the first division of the first class only five were present, whose average age was twelve years and four months. There seemed to be but few pupils present more than ten or eleven years of age. The present master has been connected with the school eleven years.
The Committee do not hesitate to say that they were disappointed in this school. With but two or three exceptions the pupils had not gone beyond the simplest questions in oral Arithmetic, and one examination they seemed to be unable to answer any thing but the plainest propositions. The school is in a low condition, and does not appear to be answering the objects for which it was instituted. There are, no doubt, great difficulties in the management and instruction of this school, arising from causes which do not affect any other school in the city. The children leave early and as soon as they are able to obtain employment. Those best educated and most capable usually go first.
They often, too, join the school at an advanced age, and without much previous education or discipline. They are inconstant in their attendance, oftentimes tardy, and in many cases exceedingly inattentive to their studies. It is evident that in a school of this character, other and greater efforts are required in its management than in the other city schools. It may not be made to compete with the other schools, yet it is believed that it can be much elevated, that its usefulness may be increased, and that it may be placed on such a footing as to answer the just expectation of its benevolent founder, as well as the rightful claims of the colored population.
2. Negro citizens of Boston petition the School Committee for integrated primary schools, 1846
Report to the Primary School Committee, June 15, 1846, on the Petition of Sundry Colored Persons for the Abolition of the Schools for Colored Children (Boston, 1846),p. 2.
To the Primary School Committee of the City of Boston:
The undersigned colored citizens of Boston, parents and guardians of children now attending the exclusive Primary Schools for colored children in this City, respectfully represent; —that the establishment of exclusive schools for our children is a great injury to us, and deprives us of those equal privileges and advantages in the public schools to which we are entitled as citizens. These separate schools cost more and do less for the children than other schools, since all experience teaches that where a small and despised class are shut out from the common benefit of any public institutions of learning and confined to separate schools, few or none interest themselves about the schools, — neglect ensues, abuses creep in, the standard of scholarship degenerates, and the teachers and the scholars are soon considered and of course become an inferior class.
But to say nothing of any other reasons for this change, it is sufficient to say that the establishment of separate schools for our children is believed to be unlawful, and it is felt to be if not in intention, in fact, insulting. If, as seems to be admitted, you are violating our rights, we simply ask you to cease doing so.
We therefore earnestly request that such exclusive schools be abolished, and that our children be allowed to attend the Primary Schools established in the respective Districts in which we live.
(Signed) George Putnam,
And Eighty-five Others.
3. Rejection of the petition by the Primary School Committee
Report of the Primary School Committee, pp. 28-30.
This report was adopted by the Committee by a vote of 59 to 16. A dissenting minority report, advocating integrated schools, was also presented.
What we claim, is,
That, under the law giving to the School Committee "the general charge and superintendence of all the public schools," and the power to "determine the number and qualification of the scholars to be admitted into the school," the Committee have the right to distribute, assign, and classify, all children, belonging to the schools in the City, according to their best judgement:
In applying these principles to the case of colored children, we maintain,
1. That their peculiar physical, mental, and moral structure, requires an educational treatment, different, in some respects, from that of white children. Teachers of schools in which they are intermingled, remark, that, in those parts of study and instruction in which progress depends on memory, or on the imitative faculties, chiefly, the colored children will often keep pace with the white children, but, when progress comes to depend chiefly on the faculties of invention, comparison, and reasoning, they quickly fall behind.
2. That the number of colored children, in Boston, is so great, that they can be advantageously placed in separate schools, where all needful stimulus, arising from numbers and competition, may be felt, without their being degraded or discouraged.
3. That they live so compactly, that in very few (if in any) cases, is it at all inconvenient to attend the special Schools provided for them.
4. That the facts, connected with the origin and history of these Schools, show, that, without them, the colored people would have remained ignorant and degraded, and very few would have been found in the Schools.
5. That if these special Schools were now abolished, the number of colored children in the Public Schools would be greatly diminished, while serious injury would also be done to the other Schools, and no benefit would result.
6. That the majority of the colored, and most of the white people, prefer the present system.
As, then, there is no statute, nor decision of the civil Courts, against classifying children in schools according to a distinction in races, color, or mental and physical peculiarities, the Committee believe that we have the right to classify on these principles; nor do they believe, that, by so doing, we defeat the intent, or violate the spirit, of the law, the Constitution, or the invaluable common-school system established by our fathers; nor in any way infringe the rights of the colored child, or degrade the colored people. These Schools were established for their special benefit: for the same reason we would have them vigorously sustained. No man, colored or white, who understands their real value to the colored people, would seek their destruction.
4. The Roberts case: an attack upon legal discrimination in access to the public schools, Boston, 1849 Sarah C. Roberts v. The City of Boston, 5 Mass. Reports, 200-201 (1849).
[The facts of the case: ]
The plaintiff is a colored child, of five years of age, a resident of Boston, and living with her father, since the month of March, 1847, in Andover street, in the sixth primary school district. In the month of April, 1847, she being of suitable age and qualifications (unless her color was a disqualification) applied to a member of the district primary school committee, having under his charge the primary school nearest to her place of residence, for a ticket of admission to that school, the number of scholars therein warranting her admission, and no special provision having been made for her, unless the establishment of the two schools for colored children exclusively, is to be so considered.
The member of the school committee, to whom the plaintiff applied, refused her application, on the ground of her being a colored person, and of the special provision made as aforesaid. The plaintiff thereupon applied to the primary school committee of the district, for admission to one of their schools, and was in like manner refused admission, on the ground of her color and the provision aforesaid. She thereupon petitioned the general primary school committee, for leave to enter one of the schools nearest her residence. That committee referred the subject to the committee of the district, with full powers, and the committee of the district thereupon again refused the plaintiff's application, on the sole ground of color and the special provision aforesaid, and the plaintiff has not since attended any school in Boston. Afterwards, on the 15th of February, 1848, the plaintiff went into the primary school nearest her residence, but without any ticket of admission or other leave granted, and was on that day ejected from the school by the teacher.
The school established in Belknap street [a school for Negro children] is twenty-one hundred feet distant from the residence of the plaintiff, measuring through the streets; and in passing from the plaintiff's residence to the Belknap street school, the direct route passes the ends of two streets in which there are five primary schools . . . The distance from the plaintiff's residence to the nearest primary school is nine hundred feet. The plaintiff might have attended the school in Belknap street, at any time, and her father was so informed, but he refused to have her attend there.
5. Argument of Charles Sumner, attorney for the plaintiff, in the Roberts case, 1849
Argument of Charles Sumner Esq. Against the Constitutionality of Separate Colored Schools in the Case of Sarah C. Roberts vs. The City of Boston (Boston, 1849), pp.4-5,10-16,19-20,23-25, 29-30.
Sumner (1811-1874), on the threshold of a long and influential political career, claimed that the School Committee had unconstitutionally exceeded its powers in barring Negro children from certain schools under its control.
I. I begin with the principle, that, according to the spirit of American institutions, and especially of the Constitution of Massachusetts, all men, without distinction of color or race, are equal before the law.
I might, perhaps, leave this proposition without one word of comment. The equality of men will not be directly denied on this occasion, and yet it has been so often assailed of late, that I trust I shall not seem to occupy your time superfluously in endeavoring to show what is understood by this term, when used in laws, or constitutions, or other political instruments.
The equality which was declared by our fathers in 1776, and which was made the fundamental law of Massachusetts in 1780, was equality before the law. Its object was to efface all political or civil distinctions, and to abolish all institutions founded upon birth. "All men are created equal," says the Declaration of Independence. "All men are born free and equal," says the Massachusetts Bill of Rights. These are not vain words. Within the sphere of their influence no person can be created, no person can be born, with civil or political privileges, not enjoyed equally by all his fellow-citizens, nor can any institution be established recognizing any distinctions of birth. This is the Great Charter of every person who draws his vital breath upon this soil, whatever may be his condition, and whoever may be his parents. He may be poor, weak, humble, black — he may be of Caucasian, of Jewish, of Indian, or of Ethiopian race — he may be of French, of German, of English, of Irish extraction — but before the Constitution of Massachusetts all these distinctions disappear. He is not poor, or weak, or humble, or black — nor Caucasian, nor Jewish, nor Indian, nor Ethiopian — nor French, nor German, nor English, nor Irish; he is a MAN, — the equal of all his fellow- men. He is one of the children of the State, which, like an impartial parent, regards all its offspring with an equal care. To some it may justly allot higher duties, according to their higher capacities, but it welcomes all to its equal, hospitable board. The State, imitating the divine justice, is no respecter of persons.
II. I now pass to the second stage of this argument, and ask attention to this proposition. The legislature of Massachusetts, in entire harmony with the Constitution, has made no discrimination of color or race, in the establishment of Public Schools.
If such discrimination were made by the laws, they would be unconstitutional and void. But the legislature of Massachusetts has been too just and generous, too mindful of the Bill of Rights, to establish any such privilege of birth. The language of the statutes is general, and applies equally to all children, of whatever color or race.
The provisions of the law regulating this subject arc entitled, Of the Public Schools. (Revised Statutes, chap. 23.) It is to these that we must look in order to ascertain what constitutes a Public School. None can be legally such which are not established in conformity with the law. They may, in point of fact, be more or less public: yet, if they do not come within the terms of the law, they do not form a part of the beautiful system of our public schools — they arc not public schools.
I conclude . . . that there is but one kind of public school established by the laws of Massachusetts. This is the general Public School, free to all the inhabitants. There is nothing in these laws establishing any exclusive or separate school for any particular class, whether rich or poor, whether Catholic or Protestant, whether white or black. In the eye of the law there is but one class, in which all interests, opinions, conditions and colors commingle in harmony — excluding none, comprehending all.
III. The Courts of Massachusetts have never recognized any discrimination, founded on color or race, in the administration of the Public Schools, but have recognized the equal rights of all the inhabitants.
There are a few decisions only of our Court bearing on this subject, but they all breathe one spirit. The sentiment of equality animates them. In the case of Commonwealth vs. Davis, 6 Mass. R. 146, while declaring the equal rights of all the inhabitants, both in the grammar and district schools, the Court said: "The schools required by the statute are to be maintained for the benefit of the whole town, as it is the wise policy of the law to give all the inhabitants equal privileges for the education of their children in the public schools. Nor is it in the power of the majority to deprive the minority of this privilege . . . Every inhabitant of the town has a right to participate in the benefits of both descriptions of schools, and it is not competent for a town to establish a grammar school for the benefit of one part of the town to the exclusion of the other, although the money raised for the support of schools may be in other respects fairly apportioned."
IV. The exclusion of colored children from the Public Schools, open to white children, is a source of practical inconvenience to them and their parents, to which white persons are not exposed, and is, therefore, a violation of Equality. The black and the white are not equal before the law.
It appears from the statement of facts, that among the rules of the Primary School Committee, is one to this effect: "Scholars to go to the school nearest their residence. Applicants for admission to our schools (with the exception and provision referred to in the preceding rule) are especially entitled to enter the schools nearest to their places of residence." The exception here is "of those for whom special provision has been made" in separate schools; that is, colored children.
I may go, however, beyond the facts of this case, and show that the inconvenience arising from the exclusion of colored children, is of such a character as seriously to affect the comfort and condition of the African race in Boston. The two primary schools open to these children are in Belknap street and in Sun court. I need not add that the whole city is dotted with schools open to white children. The colored parents, anxious that their children should have the benefit of education, are compelled to live in the neighborhood of the schools, to gather about them, as in the East people come from a distance to rest near a fountain or a well. They have not, practically, the same liberty of choosing their homes, which belongs to the white man. Inclination, or business, or economy, may call them to another part of the city; but they are restrained on account of their children. There is no such restraint upon the white man, for he knows that wherever in the city inclination, or business, or economy, may call him, he will find a school open to his children near his door. Surely this is not equality before the law.
Or if a colored person, yielding to the necessities of his position, removes to a distant part of the city, his children may be compelled, at an inconvenience which will not be called trivial, to walk a long distance in order to enjoy the advantages of the school. In our severe winters, this cannot be disregarded by children so tender in years as those of the primary schools. There is a respectable colored person, I am told, who became some time since a resident at East Boston, separated by the water from the main land. There are, of course, proper public schools at East Boston, but none that were then open to colored children. This person, therefore, was obliged to send his children, three in number, daily, across the ferry to the distant African school. The tolls for these children amounted to a sum which formed a severe tax upon a poor man.
V. The separation of children in the Public Schools of Boston, on account of color or race, is in the nature of Caste, and is a violation of Equality.
The facts in this case show expressly that the child was excluded from the school nearest to her dwelling, the number in the school at the time warranting her admission, "on the sole ground of color." The first Majority Report presented to the School Committee, to which reference is made in the statement of facts, gives, with more fulness, the grounds of this discrimination, saying, "It is one of races, not of color, merely. The distinction is one which the Almighty has seen fit to establish, and it is founded deep in the physical, mental, and moral natures of the two races. No legislation, no social customs, can efface this distinction." Words more apt than these to describe the heathenish relation of Caste, could not be chosen.
It will be vain to say that this distinction, though seeming to be founded on color, is in reality founded on natural and physical peculiarities, which are independent of color. These peculiarities, whatever they may be, are peculiarities of race, and any discrimination on account of them constitutes the relation of Caste. Disguise it as you will, it is this hateful institution. But the words Caste and Equality are contradictory. They mutually exclude each other. Where Caste is, there cannot be Equality. Where Equality is, there cannot be Caste. It is unquestionably true that there is a distinction between the Ethiopian and Caucasian race. Each has received from the hand of God certain characteristics of color and form. The two may not readily intermingle, although we are told by Homer that Jupiter
— "did not disdain to grace The feast of Ethiopia's blameless race."
One may be uninteresting or offensive to the other, precisely as different individuals of the same race and color may be uninteresting or offensive to each other. But this distinction can furnish no ground for any discrimination before the law.
We abjure nobility of all kinds; but here is a nobility of the skin. We abjure all hereditary distinctions; but here is an hereditary distinction, founded not on the merit of the ancestor, but on his color. We abjure all privileges derived from birth; but here is a privilege which depends solely on the accident, whether an ancestor is black or white. We abjure all inequality before the law; but here is an inequality which touches not an individual, but a race. We revolt at the relation of caste; but here is a caste which is established under a Constitution, declaring that all men are born equal.
Condemning caste and inequality before the law, let us now consider more particularly the powers of the School Committee. Here it will be necessary to enter into some details.
VI. The Committee of Boston, charged with the superintendence of the Public Schools, have no power under the Constitution and laws of Massachusetts, to make any discrimination on account of color or race, among children in the Public Schools.
It has been already seen that this power is inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of Massachusetts, and with all adjudications of the Supreme Court. The stream cannot rise higher than the fountain-head, and if there be nothing in these elevated sources, from which this power can draw its sanction, it must be considered a nullity.
But it is said that the Committee, in thus classifying the children, have not violated any principle of Equality, inasmuch as they have provided a school with competent instructors for the colored children, where they have equal advantages of instruction with those enjoyed by the white children. It is said that in excluding the colored children from the Public Schools open to white children, they furnish them an equivalent.
In point of fact, it is not an equivalent. We have already seen that it is the occasion of inconveniences to the colored children and their parents, to which they would not be exposed, if they had access to the nearest public schools, besides inflicting upon them the stigma of Caste. Still further, and this consideration cannot be neglected, the matters taught in the two schools may be precisely the same; but a school, exclusively devoted to one class, must differ essentially, in its spirit and character, from that public school known to the law, where all classes meet together in equality. It is a mockery to call it an equivalent.
But there is yet another answer. Admitting that it is an equivalent, still the colored children cannot be compelled to take it. Their rights are Equality before the law; nor can they be called upon to renounce one jot of this. They have an equal right with white children to the general public schools. A separate school, though well endowed, would not secure to them that precise Equality, which they would enjoy in the general public schools. The Jews in Rome are confined to a particular district, called the Ghetto. In Frankfort they are condemned to a separate quarter, known as the Jewish quarter. It is possible that the accommodations allotted to them are as good as they would be able to occupy, if left free to choose throughout Rome and Frankfort; but this compulsory segregation from the mass of citizens is of itself an inequality which we condemn with our whole souls. It is a vestige of ancient intolerance directed against a despised people. It is of the same character with the separate schools in Boston.
Who can say, that this does not injure the blacks? Theirs, in its best estate, is an unhappy lot. Shut out by a still lingering prejudice from many social advantages, a despised class, they feel this proscription from the Public Schools as a peculiar brand. Beyond this, it deprives them of those healthful animating influences which would come from a participation in the studies of their white brethren. It adds to their discouragements. It widens their separation from the rest of the community, and postpones that great day of reconciliation which is sure to come.
The whole system of public schools suffers also. It is a narrow perception of their high aim which teaches that they are merely to furnish to all the scholars an equal amount in knowledge, and that, therefore, provided all be taught, it is of little consequence where, and in what company it be done. The law contemplates not only that they shall all be taught, but that they shall be taught all together. They are not only to receive equal quantities of knowledge, but all are to receive it in the same way. All are to approach together the same common fountain; nor can there be any exclusive source for any individual or any class. The school is the little world in which the child is trained for the larger world of life. It must, therefore, cherish and develop the virtues and the sympathies which are employed in the larger world. And since, according to our institutions, all classes meet without distinction of color, in the performance of civil duties, so should they all meet, without distinction of color, in the school, beginning there those relations of equality which our Constitution and laws promise to all.
As the State receives strength from the unity and solidarity of its citizens, without distinction of class, so the school receives new strength from the unity and solidarity of all classes beneath its roof. In this way, the poor, the humble, and the neglected, share not only the companionship of their presence, in drawing towards the school a more watchful superintendence. A degraded or neglected class, if left to themselves, will become more degraded or neglected. To him that hath shall be given; and the world, true to these words, turns from the poor and outcast to the rich and fortunate. It is the aim of our system of Public Schools, by the blending of all classes, to draw upon the whole school the attention which is too apt to be given only to the favored few, and thus secure to the poor their portion of the fruitful sunshine. But the colored children, placed apart by themselves, are deprived of this blessing.
Nothing is more clear than that the welfare of classes, as well as of individuals, is promoted by mutual acquaintance. The French and English, for a long time regarded as natural enemies, have at last, from a more intimate communion, found themselves to be natural friends. Prejudice is the child of ignorance. It is sure to prevail where people do not know each other. Society and intercourse are means established by Providence for human improvement. They remove antipathies, promote mutual adaptation and conciliation, and establish relations of reciprocal regard. Whoso sets up barriers to these, thwarts the ways of Providence, crosses the tendencies of human nature, and directly interferes with the laws of God.
6. Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, speaking for a unanimous Court, holds that Sarah Roberts has not been deprived of her rights by the School Committee
Sarah C. Roberts v. City of Boston, 5 Mass. Reports, 206-207, 209-210 (1849).
The great principle, advanced by the learned and eloquent advocate of the plaintiff, is, that by the constitution and laws of Massachusetts, all persons without distinction of age or sex, birth or color, origin or condition, are equal before the law. This, as a broad general principle, such as ought to appear in a declaration of rights, is perfectly sound; it is not only expressed in terms, but pervades and animates the whole spirit of our constitution of free government. But, when this great principle comes to be applied to the actual and various conditions of persons in society, it will not warrant the assertion, that men and women are legally clothed with the same civil and political powers, and that children and adults are legally to have the same functions and be subject to the same treatment; but only that the rights of all, as they are settled and regulated by law, are equally entitled to the paternal consideration and protection of the law, for their maintenance and security. What those rights are, to which individuals, in the infinite variety of circumstances by which they are surrounded in society, are entitled, must depend on laws adapted to their respective relations and conditions.
Conceding, therefore, in the fullest manner, that colored persons, the descendants of Africans, are entitled by law, in this commonwealth, to equal rights, constitutional and political, civil and social, the question then arises, whether the regulation in question, which provides separate schools for colored children, is a violation of any of these rights.
Legal rights must, after all, depend upon the provisions of law; certainly all those rights of individuals which can be asserted and maintained in any judicial tribunal. The proper providence of a declaration of rights and constitution of government, after directing its form, regulating its organization and the distribution of its powers, is to declare great principles and fundamental truths, to influence and direct the judgment and conscience of legislators in making laws, rather than to limit and control them, by directing what precise laws they shall make. The provision, that it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, especially the university at Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools, in the towns, is precisely of this character. Had the legislature failed to comply with this injunction, and neglected to provide public schools in the towns, or should they so far fail in their duty as to repeal all laws on the subject, and leave all education to depend on private means, strong and explicit as the direction of the constitution is, it would afford no remedy or redress to the thousands of the rising generation, who now depend on these schools to afford them a most valuable education, and an introduction to useful life.
In the absence of special legislation on this subject, the law has vested the power in the committee to regulate the system of distribution and classification; and when this power is reasonably exercised, without being abused or perverted by colorable pretences, the decision of the committee must be deemed conclusive. The committee, apparently upon great deliberation, have come to the conclusion, that the good of both classes of schools will be best promoted, by maintaining the separate primary schools for colored and for white children, and we can perceive no ground to doubt, that this is the honest result of their experience and judgment.
It is urged, that this maintenance of separate schools tends to deepen and perpetuate the odious distinction of caste, founded in a deep-rooted prejudice in public opinion. This prejudice, if it exists, is not created by law, and probably cannot be changed by law. Whether this distinction and prejudice, existing in the opinion and feelings of the community, would not be as effectually fostered by compelling colored and white children to associate together in the same schools, may well be doubted; at all events, it is a fair and proper question for the committee to consider and decide upon, having in view the best interests of both classes of children placed under their superintendence, and we cannot say, that their decision upon it is not founded on just grounds of reason and experience, and in the results of a discriminating and honest judgment.
The increased distance, to which the plaintiff was obliged to go to school from her father's house, is not such, in our opinion, as to render the regulation in question unreasonable, still less illegal.
7. The Massachusetts legislature reverses the Roberts case decision, 1855
"An Act in amendment of 'An Act concerning Public Schools . . . ,'"1855—ch. 256, Massachusetts Acts and Resolves, 1854-1855 (Boston, 1855), pp. 674-675.
In determining the qualifications of scholars to be admitted into any public school or any district school in this Commonwealth, no distinction shall be made on account of the race, color or religious opinions, of the applicant or scholar.
Any child who, on account of his race, color or religious opinions, shall be excluded from any public or district school in this Commonwealth, for admission to which he may be otherwise qualified, shall recover damages therefore in an action of tort, to be brought in the name of said child by his guardian or next friend, in any court of competent jurisdiction to try the same, against the city or town by which such school is supported.
A college proposed in New Haven, Connecticut, for Negro youth, 1831
1. Resolutions in favor of the college
Minutes and Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the [Free] People of Colour, held at Philadelphia, June 1831 (Philadelphia, 1831), pp. 6-7.
The plan proposed is, that a College be established at New-Haven, Connecticut, as soon as $20,000 are obtained, and to be on the Manual Labour System, by which, in connexion with a scientific education, they may also obtain a useful Mechanical or Agricultural profession, and ... a benevolent individual has offered to subscribe one thousand dollars towards this object, provided, that a farther sum of nineteen thousand dollars can be obtained in one year.
After an interesting discussion, the above report was unanimously adopted; one of the inquiries by the Convention was, in regard to the place of location. On interrogating the gentlemen why New-Haven should be the place of location, they gave the following as their reasons: —
1st. The site is healthy and beautiful.
2d. Its inhabitants are friendly, pious, generous, and humane.
3d. Its laws are salutary and protecting to all, without regard to complexion.
4th. Boarding is cheap and provisions are good.
5th. The situation is as central as any other that can be obtained with the same advantages.
6th. The town of New-Haven carries on an extensive West India trade, and many of the wealthy coloured residents in the Islands, would, no doubt, send their sons there to be educated, and thus a fresh tie of friendship would be formed, which might be productive of much real good in the end.
And last, though not the least, the literary and scientific character of New-Haven, renders it a very desirable place for the location of the College.
The Convention, having received the report of the committee, and being deeply impressed with the importance of such an institution, do hereby resolve, that it is highly expedient to make an effort to carry the same into effect, under due regulations. Therefore, resolved, that this Convention earnestly recommend to our Brethren, to contribute as God has given them the ability, to aid in carrying into operation the proposed institution; and the Convention would wish it to be distinctly understood, that the Trustees of the contemplated Institution, shall a majority of them be coloured persons; the number proposed is seven, three white, and four coloured; who shall be elected by the subscribers, contributors, or their representatives: the elections to be held in the city of New-York, unless ordered otherwise by the Convention.
2. Local opposition prevents the founding of the college
Resolutions of a meeting of New Haven freemen, Sept. 10, 1831, in Simeon S. Jocelyn, College for Colored Youth; An Account of the New Haven City Meeting and Resolutions (New York, 1831), pp. 4-5.
At a City Meeting, duly warned, and held at the City Hall in the city of New-Haven, on Saturday the 10th day of September, 1831, to take into consideration a project for the establishment in this city of a College for the education of Colored Youth; the following preambles and resolutions were by said meeting adopted, viz: —
Whereas endeavors are now making to establish a College in this city for the education of the colored population of the United States, the West Indies, and other countries adjacent; and in connection with this establishment, the immediate abolition of slavery in the United States is not only recommended and encouraged, by the advocates of the proposed College, but demanded as a right; and whereas an omission to notice these measures may be construed as implying either indifference to, or approbation of the same—
Resolved, That it is expedient that the sentiments of our citizens should be expressed on these subjects, and that the calling of this meeting by the Mayor and Aldermen is warmly approved by the citizens of this place.
Resolved
, That in as much as slavery does not exist in Connecticut, and wherever permitted in other States depends on the municipal laws of the State which allows it, and over which neither any other State, nor the Congress of the United States has any control, that the propagation of sentiments favorable to the immediate emancipation of slaves in disregard of the civil institutions of the States in which they belong, and as auxiliary thereto the contemporaneous founding of Colleges for educating colored people, is an unwarrantable and dangerous interference with the internal concerns of other States, and ought to be discouraged.And whereas in the opinion of this meeting, Yale College, the institutions for the education of females, and the other schools, already existing in this city, are important to the community and the general interests of science, and as such have been deservedly patronized by the public, and the establishment of a College in the same place to educate the colored population is incompatible with the prosperity, if not the existence of the present institutions of learning, and will be destructive of the best interests of the city: — And believing as we do, that if the establishment of such a College in any part of the country were deemed expedient, it should never be imposed on any community without their consent. — Therefore, Resolved, — by the Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council and Freemen of the City of New-Haven, in City Meeting assembled, That we will resist the establishment of the proposed College in this place, by every lawful means.
Dennis Kimberly, Mayor.
Elisha Monson, Clerk.
The decision to admit black students to Oberlin College, 1834-1835
With the College only recently founded and desperately short of funds, its officials discovered that they could recruit both a distinguished faculty and a group of theological students and secure large sums by committing internal management to the faculty and admitting black students on equal terms with white.
1. Students should be received "irrespective of color"
Rev. John J. Shipherd from Cincinnati, Ohio, agent of the College, to an official in Oberlin, Dec. 15, 1834, from a copy in the Robert S. Fletcher File, Oberlin College Archives, Oberlin, Ohio.
Dear Br. Fletcher;
... I desire you at the first meeting of the Trustees to secure the passage of the following resolution, viz. "Resolved, That students shall be received into this Institution irrespective of color."
This should be passed because it is right principle, and God will bless us in doing right. Also because thus doing right we gain the confidences of benevolent and able men who probably will furnish us some thousands. Moreover, Bros. Mahan and Morgan will not accept our invitation unless this principle rule.
Indeed if our Board would violate right so as to reject youth of talent and piety, because they were black I should have no heart to labor for the upbuilding of our Seminary, believing that the curse of God would come upon us as it has upon Lane Seminary, for its unchristian abuse of the poor Slave.
2. The board rejects Shipherd's request—a retrospective account
Letter of N. P. Fletcher to Levi Burnell, 1837, from a copy in the Fletcher File, Oberlin College Archives.
The close of the year 1834 found the Oberlin Institute in debts, without a head or professors, and no funds to sustain appointments which were indispensibly necessary, want of harmony, concert in prayer and action at this Junction would have been criminal and Indeed notwithstanding, the Tardy Labour of Some, the Cruel Indifference of others, and direct and open opposition of a few — God evidently said in his kindness go forward, and the hand of the Lord led bro. Shipherd to the men and the money on this Information reaching Oberlin — a General panic — and dispair seized the Officers Students and Colonists — P. P. Stewart the Organ of Opposition at once proclaimed Bro. Shipherd Mad!! crazy etc. etc. and that the School was changed into a Negro School ... Its founders would be disappointed and hundreds of negroes would be flooding the School — despondency brooded with sable distrust over almost every soul, because the Christian patrons made it a Condition in their donations that Coloured people should stand equal in the privileges of the Institution — many students said they would leave and Br. Stewart sd. he would not stay —
The board refused to recognize the doings of Br. Shipherd their Agent and during the siting of the board at Elyria the same rancour and malevolence were exhibited by the Opposition and no notice was taken by the board of the imprudent and wicked conduct of Stewart —
3. The board supplied with numerous reasons for admitting black students
Rev. John J. Shipherd, New York City, to the trustees of Oberlin College, Jan. 19, 1835, from a copy in the Fletcher File, Oberlin College Archives.
Soon after receiving this letter, the board reconsidered its earlier decision and voted to admit Negroes.
Here, beloved brethren, I am sensible I touch a delicate subject. I do it with kindest feeling toward any that may differ, and with respect to their opinions. And let me say that I regret the agitation produced by my request respecting the admission of colored students. That agitation was unexpected, and your decision surprising and grievous to my soul. I did not desire you to hang out an abolition flan or fill up with filthy stupid negroes; but I did desire that you should say you would not reject promising youth who desired to prepare for usefulness because God had given them a darker hue than others. I asked that resolution without a doubt but what you would pass it; and for the purpose of satisfying subscribers 's and professors elect that we were right on this subject. My reasons for receiving colored youth into our institutions are —
1. All christians agree that they ought to be educated and fitted for the full privileges of freemen.
2. There is no school of their own, or for them, where they can be well educated; and they can be sooner qualified, and better fitted to labor for the elevation of their oppressed race in connexion with whites (now comparatively elevated) than in a separate school.
3. We should receive only those to whom no objection could be made except by prejudice against a dark skin.
4. This was done by our first institutions till "Abolition'" aroused and inflamed prejudice. Dartmouth had a special fund for educating Indians, and did educate them, and did not stop because of their color. Rev. br. White of this city was educated at Princeton, and he is Black etc. etc.
(5 and 6 Omitted from text)
7. The prejudice against eating and associating with colored people is like that of the scribes and Pharasees against the publicans and sinners with whom Christ ate to their great displeasure. He ate with those publicans and sinners to do them good; and doubtless would eat with negroes if on earth. Should we reject those whom God receives?
8. There is no more danger of intermarriages among our white and colored youth than there is of fornication among our white sexes, and yet we wish that sin among them to gain important ends.
9. We shall not force an association with them. The willing minded will be their associates. If they cannot be borne at the Institute's table, I and the Faculty will board any that we would receive.
10. I was brot. up with blacks, and slaves and would choke with thirst before I would drink from the same cup with them; but God has shown me that it was an unholy pride and sinful prejudice which I dare not cherish longer through fear of his displeasure.
11. Although we may by receiving colored youth displease the pride of some fellow creatures; by refusing to receive them we must offend God. So I verily believe.
12. If we were colored applicants for admission to the 0. C. Inst. what wd. we tell its guardians the law of love to our neighbor requires?
13. If we say we will not permit our professors to decide on the reception of colored youth we lose the best Faculty that can be found; for bros. Mahan and Finney and Morgan will not engage with us unless they can be permitted to instruct colored youth if they please; nor shall we be likely to find others, such as we need in other respects, who would engage without this privilege.
14. The reception of colored students is not wronging old subscribers, for it is a common understanding that they can be admitted to literary institutions if worthy.
15. We injure no one by permitting worthy colored youth to qualify for usefulness at our institution, but by refusing, we do our injured neighbor of color an unpardonable injury.
16. I do not believe that God will bless us if we suffer a worldly expediency to control us so far as to withold the right of education at our Seminary from our colored brothers. Therefore lastly. If my dear brethren of the Board cannot consent to this, I cannot conscienciously consent to labor any longer for the building of the O. C. Institute. If right, eternal right, its glory, must forsake it I must forsake it too.
Blacks views of education
1. An appeal to free Negroes to seek education, 1830
[David Walker], Walker's Appeal, in Four Articles Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and very Expressly, to those of the United States of America . . . 3d ed. (Boston, 1830), pp. 35-38.
This celebrated call to action was written by a free Negro born in North Carolina and living in Boston when it was published. Walker (1785-1830) surveyed the oppression of Negroes and advocated violence if masters, failing to follow the demands of Christianity, refused to free their slaves. The pamphlet was banned in the South and a rice put on Walker's head. The selection is from Article II, "Our Wretchedness in Consequence of Ignorance."
There is a great work for you to do, as trifling as some of you may think of it. You have to prove to the Americans and the world, that we are MEN, and not brutes, as we have been represented, and by millions treated. Remember, to let the aim of your labours among your brethren, and particularly the youths, be the dissemination of education and religion. It is lamentable, that many of our children go to school, from four until they are eight or ten, and sometimes fifteen years of age, and leave school knowing but a little more about the grammar of their language than a horse does about handling a musket — and not a few of them are really so ignorant, that they are unable to answer a person correctly, general questions in geography, and to hear them read, would only be to disgust a man who has a taste for reading; which, to do well, as trifling as it may appear to some (to the ignorant in particular), is a great part of learning. Some few of them, may make out to scribble tolerably well, over a half sheet of paper, which I believe has hitherto been a powerful obstacle in our way, to keep us from acquiring knowledge. An ignorant father, who knows no more than what nature has taught him, together with what little he acquires by the senses of hearing and seeing, finding his son able to write a neat hand, sets it down for granted that he has as good learning as any body; the young, ignorant gump, hearing his father or mother, who perhaps may be ten times more ignorant, in point of literature, than himself, extolling his learning, struts about, in the full assurance, that his attainments in literature are sufficient to take him through the world, when, in fact, he has scarcely any learning at all!!!!
I promiscuously fell into conversation once, with an elderly coloured man on the topics of education, and of the great prevalency of ignorance among us: Said he, "I know that our people are very ignorant but my son has a good education: I spent a great deal of money on his education: he can write as well as any white man, and I assure you that no one can fool him," &c. Said I, what else can your son do, besides writing a good hand? Can he post a set of books in a mercantile manner? Can he write a neat piece of composition in prose or in verse? To these interrogations he answered in the negative. Said I, Did your son learn, while he was at school, the width and depth of English Grammar? To which he also replied in the negative, telling me his son did not learn those things. Your son, said I, then, has hardly any learning at all — he is almost as ignorant, and more so, than many of those who never went to school one day in all their lives. My friend got a little put out, and so walking off, said that his son could write as well as any white man. — Most of the coloured people, when they speak of the education of one among us who can write a neat hand, and who perhaps knows nothing but to scribble and puff pretty fair on a small scrap of paper, immaterial whether his words are grammatical, or spelt correctly, or not; if it only looks beautiful, they say he has as good an education as any white man—he can write as well as any white man, &c. The poor, ignorant creature, hearing this, he is ashamed, forever after, to let any person see him humbling himself to another for knowledge but going about trying to deceive those who are more ignorant than himself, he at last falls an ignorant victim to death in wretchedness. I pray that the Lord may undeceive my ignorant brethren, and permit them to throw away pretensions, and seek after the substance of learning. I would crawl on my hands and knees through mud and mire, to the feet of a learned man, where I would sit and humbly supplicate him to instil into me, that which neither devils nor tyrants could remove, only with my life — for coloured people to acquire learning in this country, makes tyrants quake and tremble on their sandy foundation. Why, what is the matter? Why, they know that their infernal deeds of cruelty will be made known to the world. Do you suppose one man of good sense and learning would submit himself, his father, mother, wife and children, to be slaves to a wretched man like himself, who, instead of compensating him for his labours, chains, handcuffs and beats him and family almost to death, leaving life enough in them, however, to work for, and call him master? No! no! he would cut his devilish throat from ear to ear, and well do slave-holders know it. The bare name of educating the coloured people, scares our cruel oppressors almost to death. But if they do not have enough to be frightened for yet, it will be, because they can always keep us ignorant, and because God approbates their cruelties, with which they have been for centuries murdering us. The whites shall have enough of the blacks, yet, as true as God sits on his throne in heaven.
Some of our brethren are so very full of learning, that you cannot mention any thing to them which they do not know better than yourself!!—nothing is strange to them!!—they knew every thing years ago! — if any thing should be mentioned in company where they are, immaterial how important it is respecting us or the world, if they had not divulged it; they make light of it, and affect to have known it long before it was mentioned and try to make all in the room, or wherever you may be, believe that your conversation is nothing!!—not worth hearing! All this is the result of ignorance and ill-breeding; for a man of good-breeding, sense and penetration, if he had heard a subject told twenty times over, and should happen to be in company where one should commence telling it again, he would wait with patience on its narrator, and see if he would tell it as it was told in his presence before — paying the most strict attention to what is said, to see if any more light will be thrown on the subject: for all men are not gifted alike in telling, or even hearing the most simple narration. These ignorant, vicious, and wretched men, contribute almost as much injury to our body as tyrants themselves, by doing so much for the promotion of ignorance amongst us; for they, making such pretensions to knowledge, such of our youth as are seeking after knowledge, and can get across to them, take them as criterions to go by, who will lead them into a channel, where, unless the Lord blesses them with the privilege of seeing their folly, they will be irretrievably lost forever, while in time!!!
I must close this article by relating the very heartrending fact, that I have examined schoolboys and young men of colour in different parts of the country, in the most simple parts of Murray's English Grammar, and not more than one in thirty was able to give a correct answer to my interrogations. If any one contradicts me, let him step out of his door into the streets of Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore (no use to mention any other, for the Christians are too charitable further south or west!) — I say, let him who disputes me, step out of his door into the streets of either of those four cities, and promiscuously collect one hundred school-boys, or young men of colour, who have been to school, and who are considered by the coloured people to have received an excellent education, because, perhaps, some of them can write a good hand, but who, notwithstanding their neat writing, may be almost as ignorant, in comparison, as a horse. —And, I say it, he will hardly find (in this enlightened day, and in the midst of this charitable people) five in one hundred, who are able to correct the false grammar of their language. — The cause of this almost universal ignorance among us, I appeal to our schoolmasters to declare. Here is a fact, which I this very minute take from the mouth of a young coloured man, who has been to school in this state (Massachusetts) nearly nine years, and who knows grammar this day, nearly as well as he did the day he entered the school-house, under a white master. This young man says: "My master would never allow me to study grammar." — I asked him, why? "The school committee," said he, "forbid the coloured children learning grammar — they would not allow any but the white children to study grammar." It is a notorious fact, that the major part of the white Americans, have, ever since we have been among them, tried to keep us ignorant, and make us believe that God made us and our children to be slaves to them and theirs. Oh! my God, have mercy on Christian Americans!!!
2. Frederick Douglass advises Harriet Beecher Stowe to assist in the foundation of a manual labor school, 1853
Letter dated March 8, 1853, in Proceedings of the Colored National Convention, Held in Rochester, July 6th, 7th, and 8th, 1853 (Rochester, 1853), pp.33-38.
My Dear Mrs. Stowe.
You kindly informed me, when at your house, a fortnight ago, that you designed to do something which should permanently contribute to the improvement and elevation of the free colored people in the United States. You especially expressed an interest in such of this class as had become free by their own exertions, and desired most of all to be of service to them. In what manner, and by what means, you can assist this class most successfully, is the subject upon which you have done me the honor to ask my opinion.
First of all, let me briefly state the nature of the disease, before I undertake to prescribe the remedy. Three things are notoriously true of us, as a people. These are POVERTY, IGNORANCE and DEGRADATION. Of course there are exceptions to this general statement; but these are so few as only to prove its essential truthfulness. I shall not stop here to inquire minutely into the causes which have produced our present condition; nor to denounce those whom I believe to be responsible for those causes. It is enough that we shall agree upon the character of the evil, whose existence we deplore, and upon some plan for its removal.
To deliver them from this triple malady, is to improve and elevate them, by which I mean simply to put them on an equal footing with their white fellow-countrymen in the sacred right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness." I am for no fancied or artificial elevation, but only ask fair play. How shall this be obtained? I answer, first, not by establishing for our use high schools and colleges. Such institutions are, in my judgment, beyond our immediate occasions, and are not adapted to our present most pressing wants. High schools and colleges are excellent institutions, and will, in due season, be greatly subservient to our progress; but they are the result, as well as they are the demand of a point of progress, which we, as a people, have not yet attained. Accustomed, as we have been, to the rougher and harder modes of living, and of gaining a livelihood, we cannot, and we ought not to hope that, in a single leap from our low condition, we can reach that of Ministers, Lawyers, Doctors, Editors, Merchants &c. These will, doubtless, be attained by us; but this will only be, when we have patiently and laboriously, and I may add successfully, mastered and passed through the intermediate gradations of agriculture and the mechanic arts. Besides, there are (and perhaps this is a better reason for my view of the case) numerous institutions of learning in this country, already thrown open to colored youth. To my thinking, there are quite as many facilities now afforded to the colored people, as they can spare the time, from the sterner duties of life, to avail themselves of. In their present condition of poverty, they cannot spare their sons and daughters two or three years at boarding schools or colleges, to say nothing of finding the means to sustain them while at such institutions. I take it, therefore, that we are well provided for in this respect; and that it may be fairly inferred from the past that the facilities for our education, so far as schools and colleges in the Free States are concerned, will increase quite in proportion with our future wants. Colleges have been open to colored youth in this country during the last dozen years. Yet few, comparatively, have acquired a classical education; and even this few have found themselves educated far above a living condition, there being no methods by which they could turn their learning to account. Several of this latter class have entered the ministry; but you need not be told that an educated people is needed to sustain an educated ministry. There must be a certain amount of cultivation among the people to sustain such a ministry. At present, we have not that cultivation amongst us; and therefore, we value, in the preacher, strong lungs, rather than high learning. I do not say that educated ministers are not needed amongst us. — Far from it! I wish there were more of them; but to increase their number is not the largest benefit you can bestow upon us.
You, dear Madam, can help the masses. You can do something for the thousands; and by lifting these from the depths of poverty and ignorance, you can make an educated ministry and an educated class possible. In the present circumstances, prejudice is a bar to the educated black minister among the whites; and ignorance is a bar to him among the blacks.
We have now two or three colored lawyers in this country; and I rejoice in the fact; for it affords very gratifying evidence of our progress. Yet it must be confessed that, in point of success, our lawyers are as great failures as are our ministers. White people will not employ them to the obvious embarrassment of their causes, and the blacks, taking their cue from the whites, have not sufficient confidence in their abilities to employ them. Hence, educated colored men, among the colored people, are at a very great discount. It would seem that education and emigration go together with us; for as soon as a man rises amongst us, capable, by his genius and learning, to do us great service, just so soon he finds that he can serve himself better by going elsewhere. In proof of this, I might instance the Russwurms — the Garnetts — the Wards — the Crummells and others — all men of superior ability and attainments, and capable of removing mountains of prejudice against their race, by their simple presence in the country; but these gentlemen, finding themselves embarrassed here by the peculiar disadvantages to which I have referred — disadvantages in part growing out of their education — being repelled by ignorance on the one hand, and prejudice on the other, and having no taste to continue a contest against such odds, they have sought more congenial climes, where they can live more peaceable and quiet lives. I regret their election — but I cannot blame them; for, with an equal amount of education, and the hard lot which was theirs, I might follow their example.
But, again, it has been said that the colored people must become farmers — that they must go on the land, in order to their elevation. Hence, many benevolent people are contributing the necessary funds to purchase land in Canada, and elsewhere, for them. That prince of good men, Gerrit Smith, has given away thousands of acres to colored men in this State, thinking, doubtless, that in so doing he was conferring a blessing upon them. Now, while I do not undervalue the efforts which have been made, and are still being made in this direction, yet I must say that I have far less confidence in such efforts, than I have in the benevolence which prompts them. Agricultural pursuits are not, as I think, suited to our condition. The reason of this is not to be found so much in the occupation (for it is a noble and ennobling one) as in the people themselves. That is only a remedy, which can be applied to the case; and the difficulty in agricultural pursuits, as a remedy for the evils of poverty and ignorance amongst us, is that it cannot, for various reasons, be applied.
We cannot apply it, because it is almost impossible to get colored men to go on the land. From some cause or other (perhaps the adage that misery loves company will explain) colored people will congregate in the large towns and cities; and they will endure any amount of hardship and privation, rather than separate, and go into the country. Again, very few have the means to set up for themselves, or to get where they could do so.
Another consideration against expending energy in this direction is our want of self-reliance. Slavery, more than all things else, robs its victims of self-reliance. To go into the western wilderness, and there to lay the foundation of future society, requires more of that important quality than a life of slavery has left us. This may sound strange to you, coming, as it does, from a colored man; but I am dealing with facts; and these never accommodate themselves to the feelings or wishes of any. They don't ask, but take leave to be. It is a fact then, and not less so because I wish it were otherwise, that the colored people are wanting in self-reliance—too fond of society — too eager for immediate results — and too little skilled in mechanics or husbandry to attempt to overcome the wilderness; at least, until they have overcome obstacles less formidable. Therefore, I look to other means than agricultural pursuits for the elevation and improvement of colored people. Of course, I allege this of the many. There are exceptions. Individuals among us, with commendable zeal, industry, perseverance and self-reliance, have found, and are finding, in agricultural pursuits, the means of supporting, improving and educating their families.
The plan which I contemplate will (if carried into effect) greatly increase the number of this class — since it will prepare others to meet the rugged duties which a pioneer agricultural condition must impose upon all who take it upon them. What I propose is intended simply to prepare men for the work of getting an honest living — not out of dishonest men — but out of an honest earth. Again, there is little reason to hope that any considerable number of the free colored people will ever be induced to leave this country, even if such a thing were desirable. The black man (un-like the Indian) loves civilization. He does not make very great progress in civilization himself, but he likes to be in the midst of it, and prefers to share its most galling evils, to encountering barbarism. Then the love of country — the dread of isolation — the lack of adventurous spirit—and the thought of seeming to desert their "brethren in bonds," are a powerful and perpetual check upon all schemes of colonization, which look to the removal of the colored people, without the slaves. — The truth is, dear Madam, we are here, and here we are likely to remain. Individuals emigrate—nations never. We have grown up with this Republic; and I see nothing in our character, or even in the character of the American people, as yet, which compels the belief that we must leave the United States. If, then, we are to remain here, the question for the wise and good is precisely that you have submitted to me — and that which I fear I have been, perhaps, too slow in answering—namely, What can be done to improve the condition of the free colored people in the United States? The plan which I humbly submit in answer to this inquiry (and in the hope that it may find favor with you, dear Madam, and with the many friends of humanity who honor, love, and cooperate with you) is the establishment in Rochester, N.Y.—or in some other part of the United States, equally favorable to such an enterprise — of an Industrial College, in which shall be taught several important branches of the mechanic arts. This college to be open to colored youth. I will pass over, for the present, the details of such an institution as that I propose. It is not worth while that I should dwell upon these at all. Once convinced that something of the sort is needed, and the organizing power will be forthcoming. It is the peculiarity of your favored race that they can always do what they think necessary to be done. I can safely trust all details to yourself, and to the wise and good people whom you represent in the interest you take in my oppressed fellow-countrymen.
Never having myself had a day's schooling in all my life, I may not be expected to be able to map out the details of a plan so comprehensive as that involved in the idea of a college. I repeat then, I leave the organization and administration to the superior wisdom of yourself and the friends that second your noble efforts. The argument in favor of an Industrial College (a College to be conducted by the best men, and the best workmen, which the mechanic arts can afford—a College where colored youth can be instructed to use their hands, as well as their heads—where they can be put in possession of the means of getting a living—whether their lot in after life may be cast among civilized or uncivilized men—whether they choose to stay here, or prefer to return to the land of their fathers) is briefly this — prejudice against the free colored people in the United States has shown itself nowhere so invincible as among mechanics. The farmer and the professional man cherish no feeling so bitter as that cherished by these. The latter would starve us out of the country entirely. At this moment, I can more easily get my son into a lawyer's office, to study law, than I can into a blacksmith's shop, to blow the bellows, and to wield the sledge-hammer. Denied the means of learning useful trades, we are pressed into the narrowest limits to obtain a livelihood. In times past we have been the hewers of wood and the drawers of water for American society, and we once enjoyed a monopoly in menial employments, but this is so no longer—even these employments are rapidly passing away out of our hands. The fact is (every day begins with the lesson, and ends with the lesson) that colored men must learn trades—must find new employments, new modes of usefulness to society — or that they must decay under the pressing wants to which their condition is rapidly bringing them. We must become mechanics—we must build, as well as live in houses — we must make, as well as use furniture—we must construct bridges, as well as pass over them—before we can properly live, or be respected by our fellow men. We need mechanics, as well as ministers. We need workers in iron, wood, clay, and in leather. We have orators, authors, and other professional men; but these reach only a certain class, and get respect for our race in certain select circles. To live here as we ought, we must fasten ourselves to our countrymen through their every day and cardinal wants. We must not only be able to black boots, but to make them. At present, we are unknown in the Northern States, as mechanics. We give no proof of genius or skill at the County, the State, or the National Fairs. We are unknown at any of the great exhibitions of the industry of our fellow-citizens — and being unknown, we are unconsidered.
The fact that we make no show of our ability, is held conclusive of our inability to make any. Hence, all the indifference and contempt, with which incapacity is regarded, fall upon us, and that too, when we have had no means of disproving the injurious opinion of our natural inferiority. I have, during the last dozen years, denied, before the Americans, that we are an inferior race. But this has been done by arguments, based upon admitted principles, rather than by the presentation of facts. Now, firmly believing, as I do, that there are skill, invention, power, industry, and real mechanical genius among the colored people, which will bear favorable testimony for them, and which only need the means to develop them, I am decidedly in favor of the establishment of such a college as I have mentioned. The benefits of such an institution would not be confined to the Northern States, nor to the free colored people: they would extend over the whole Union. The slave, not less than the freeman, would be bcnefitted by such an institution. It must be confessed that the most powerful argument, now used by the Southern slave-holder — and the one most soothing to his conscience — is, that derived from the low condition of the free colored people at the North. I have long felt that too little attention has been given, by our truest friends, in this country, to removing this stumbling block out of the way of the slave's liberation.
The most telling, the most killing refutation of slavery, is the presentation of an industrious, enterprising, upright, thrifty and intelligent free black population. Such a population, I believe, would rise in the Northern States, under the fostering care of such a College as that supposed.
To show that we are capable of becoming mechanics, I might adduce any amount of testimony; but dear Madam, I need not ring the changes on such a proposition. There is no question in the mind of any unprejudiced person, that the negro is capable of making a good mechanic. Indeed, even those who cherish the bitterest feelings towards us have admitted that the apprehension that negroes might be employed in their stead, dictated the policy of excluding them from trades altogether; but I will not dwell upon this point, as I fear I have already trespassed too long upon your precious time, and written more than I ought to expect you to read. Allow me to say, in conclusion, that I believe every intelligent colored man in America will approve and rejoice at the establishment of some such institution as that now suggested. There are many respectable colored men, fathers of large families, having boys nearly grown up, whose minds are tossed by day and by night, with the anxious enquiry, what shall I do with my boys? Such an institution would meet the wants of such persons. Then, too, the establishment of such an institution would be in character with the eminently practical philanthropy of your transatlantic friends. America could scarcely object to it, as an attempt to agitate the public mind on the subject of slavery, or to "dissolve the Union." It could not be tortured into a cause for hard words by the American people; but the noble and good of all classes would see in the effort an excellent motive, a benevolent object, temperately, wisely, and practically manifested.
Wishing you, dear Madam, renewed health, a pleasant passage and a safe return to your native land,
I am, most truly, your grateful friend,
Frederick